The Olympic tennis draws can be a pain to navigate to online, so this is what it's come down to in the quarterfinal round:
Men's:
- Roger Federer (1) vs. James Blake (8)
- Paul-Henri Mathieu vs. Fernando Gonzalez (12)
- Gael Monfils vs. Novak Djokovic (3)
- Jurgen Melzer vs. Rafael Nadal (2)
Women's:
- Sybille Bammer vs. Vera Zvonareva (9)
- Serena Williams (4) vs. Elena Dementieva (5)
- Venus Williams (7) vs. Li Na
- Dinara Safina (7) vs. Jelena Jankovic (2)
Observations:
- Bammer and Melzer have represented Austria admirably in the tennis Olympic event.
- Safina and Monfils continue to play well since the month of May (Monfils has won a Challenger and reached the semifinals of Roland Garros; Safina is 29-3 on the WTA Tour since Berlin).
- Federer is 8-0 in his career against Blake, and has lost just one out of the twenty-two sets they've played.
- The crowds at Centre Court have often been sparse, and the umpire has repeatedly had to ask fans to get to their seats quickly (it's reached epidemic-like proportions). That won't be the case in the Venus/Li Na match. If there are any seats available, I'd be shocked and disappointed.
Finally, before I forget to mention this, here is TennisWorld's version of Sports Illustrated's "Sign of the Apocalypse":
While going to ESPN.com's Tennis page on the computer in my hotel's business center, the firewall wouldn't let me access it:
**You are blocked for viewing:
sports.espn.go.com/sports/tennis/index**
For content of the following type(s):
Gambling
